What is What-If Analysis

While interactive systems have the potential to increase human work performance, those systems are predisposed to usability problems. Different factors might contribute to these problems during the interaction process and as result, the decision-making process might be compromised. This work uses decision support system methods and tools to assist in the analysis of the usability of a university library website, measuring the constructs of effectiveness, efficiency, and learnability. The pilot study involved thirty-five subjects, and after collecting data, a multidimensional view of the data is created and discussed. Later, a What-if analysis is used to investigate the impact of different scenarios on system-use. The work has the potential to assist designers and system administrators at improving their systems.